‘You just feel special in her attention’

It’s not often that people use the words “playful” and “funny” to describe a 98-year-old, but people like Jean Zamboni don’t come around often.

She was born Mary Jean Zamboni in October 1924 – 15 minutes ahead of her identical twin, she liked to remind people.

The house where she and Mary Edith Zamboni were born remained in the family until 2021, when “the girls,” as many people called them, moved to Rochester.

Jean had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and needed more care than DeDe, as Edith was known, could provide.

Jean moved into a memory care facility while DeDe, a retired Franciscan nun, returned to Assisi Heights.

“It broke our hearts when they couldn’t live together,” said Patty Jessop, a longtime neighbor and friend of the twins. “They cared for one another their whole lives.”

Jean Zamboni died June 11, just five months before her 99^th birthday.

Her well-traveled, independent, entrepreneurial life is being remembered fondly by many in Owatonna, the hometown to which she and her sister always returned.

Businesswoman

After her first career as an art teacher – which led her to cities throughout the United States and South America – Zamboni opened a business in Owatonna with another art teacher, Alice Ottinger.

Together, the women opened a printing business called OZ Press, creating original cards and hand-screened serigraphs.

It’s where Jerry Ganfield, a docent and board member of the Steele County Historical Society, first met Zamboni.

“I knew her as the artist, making silk screens,” he said. That was in 1976.

The little business in the basement of a building on Bridge Street was also responsible for bringing Zamboni and Nancy Vaillancourt together.

“I first got to know Jean when she was looking for something to honor OZ Press” and Ottinger, Vaillancourt said. “I was president of the historical society at the time, and there was discussion about building a place to house the press they used. She gave a generous donation for the building, and we were able to get that done.”

But Zamboni didn’t leave the work to someone else: “The whole process of moving that press … then she spent hours working to get it operational again,” Vaillancourt said.

Neighbor

Though Steve and Patty Jessop attended church with the Zamboni twins, and “knew them about town,” it was when they became “alley neighbors” that the relationship blossomed.

The Jessops lived on Prospect Avenue; the Zamboni house was on University.

“We had neighborhood night out parties before they became popular,” Patty Jessop said. “We always had kids in the neighborhood, and the girls were always right at the line with the kids’ games.

“They just saw the beauty and wonder in everything,” she said. “It’s almost just a playful personality – they were so excited about everything. They shared their joy, and they didn’t want to miss out on anything.”

Throughout the years, the Jessop family spent many holidays with the Zamboni twins, who were the last members of their immediate family.

Patty would see them at their kitchen window as she walked down the alley to work or church, “and they’d always wave – or if they had something to tell me, they’d come out to talk.”

Steve Jessop, who worked from home in their upholstery business, saw them often, as well.

“When they were still riding their bicycles,” Patty said of the Zambonis, “they’d have him pump up their bike tires with his air compressor.”

When Steve became terminally ill, “he didn’t ever really advertise the fact,” Patty said. “DeDe stopped by the house one time and Steve answered the door. She noticed he didn’t look good,” and Patty told them the news.

“So they’d just check in on him,” she said. “They always wanted to do what they could; they were just always there for us.”

She laughs at the memory of the two tiny women bringing some ginger ale for Steve to sip.

“You can imagine those two little things,” Jessop said. “They came walking up the alley with a 12-pack of pop – almost heavier than both of them, right?”

In May 2020, “when it got to the point that we thought he should probably have a final blessing, I told the girls to stop by,” she said.

Jessop captured the moment with a photo: Her husband, in his beloved upholstery shop, “the girls” standing near his bed.

“It was so angelic,” Jessop said. “You can see how engaged – almost even playful – they were, thinking, ‘We want to be here. This is happening, we can pray for Steve and love him.’ They were always ministering, throughout their whole life, to this community.”

Historian

The first Zamboni in Owatonna was Jean’s paternal grandfather, who came from the Italian canton of Switzerland.

Once here, the family owned a Dodge dealership, Ganfield said, and was responsible for the Italian marble on the front of the Zamboni Building in the 300 block of North Cedar in Owatonna.

“They were also gunsmiths and bicycle salesmen,” he said.

“During the Depression, their family was very poor,” said Vaillancourt, who spent hours on the twins’ front porch during COVID.

“They’d share stories about their youth and the people they grew up with,” she said – like how the twins put on little shows in the family’s garage, charging neighbor kids to come and see the “Amazing 3-Legged Woman.”

“They’d put a sheet or blanket over them, and one (twin) would be kind of hidden, but with her leg sticking out, so it looked like the other had three legs,” Vaillancourt said.

Price of admission was two straight sewing pins or one needle, which they gave to their mother.

When the Dodge dealership went out of business in the 1920s, “they said those were really dark days,” Vaillancourt said.

When their father developed a fishing fly business, the twins helped with that. An advertising display from that endeavor is one of the exhibits at the history center.

“They talked, too, about World War II,” Vaillancourt said. “They would save their gas rations and trade them for rations of sugar, so at Christmas time they could make special treats and give them to their neighbors.”

And no, they aren’t related to that other Zamboni, he of the ice-smoothing machine. In fact, it was a point of contention if people asked.

Perhaps that’s why, Ganfield said, the Owatonna Zambonis have been so generous.

In addition to funding the print shop for the OZ Press at the Village of Yesteryear, the twins funded the Zamboni Genealogy and Research Room inside the history center.

“We were offering naming rights,” Ganfield said, “and they looked at it as a way to get the Zamboni name up in lights, so to speak. I think it impacted them because they were the last of their family. They wanted to share the history of that family, so that’s why they donated so much from their family’s businesses.”

While giving tours of the facility and grounds, “I talk about the Zambonis quite a bit, because everywhere you turn, there’s an item that they valued and appreciated and wanted to share,” he said – especially in the Dunnell House.

Friend

“Jean was very committed to her students,” said Vaillancourt, “and had friends all over the world. You feel very special in her attention. And she was so funny – I just enjoyed her sense of humor so much.”

Her visits to the Zamboni front porch during COVID were “something I needed, too; I give them credit for helping me get through COVID.”

Vaillancourt speaks of their adventures: Stargazing, a vigil for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, sorting years’ worth of papers, talking and laughing. They partied for the Super Bowl, she said.

“It was a blessing in my life to get to know her better and to be close to her,” she said.

About a week before her death, “Jean came to visit me in a dream. She was strong and healthy, walking steadily. It was a glimpse of Jean without her physical limitations,” Vaillancourt said.

Ganfield, too, talked about Jean’s personality, “and every event she could possibly attend, she was there.”

The last time she visited the SCHS, “she wanted to go see the printing press, but because of the snow, we couldn’t get her to it,” he said.

Jean gave Jessop some prints when she had to close OZ Press.

“I’ve got a couple of lovely pieces – they’re just that much more special now,” she said.

Jessop remembers the year the twins were named Grand Marshals of the Harry Wenger Marching Band Festival.

“They were in their glory,” she said. “They were so thrilled to ride in that parade,” so Jessop bought them each a little wrist corsage for their “waving” arms.

“I wouldn’t have wanted to live in any other neighborhood,” she said.

“To be neighbors and good friends with them was just once in a lifetime.”

Twin

It’s nearly impossible to talk about one Zamboni without mentioning the other; almost every story shared by their friends included both Jean and DeDe.

“As we got to know them and shared stories, we talked about them growing up,” Jessop said. “People who knew them when they were young said they were inseparable, they were involved in every activity – they’ve not changed since they were little kids. They just love the community, they loved to stay busy, they loved being involved, and it just continued.”

The twins attended college together, then both traveled extensively for their jobs before retirement brought them back to Owatonna. When they moved to Rochester in 2021, it was the first time in nearly 20 years they lived apart.

DeDe visited Jean a couple of times a week, Vaillancourt said, “and called her every night.”

But sisters will be sisters, no matter the age.

“A few days before Jean died, DeDe came in to visit her,” Vaillancourt said.

“And Jean looked at her and said, ‘Are you wearing my sweater?’ And DeDe said, ‘Yes, I am.’”